Keener 13

The morgue. In the radio news biz, that’s the place where you save all the raw tape, the typed copy and the actualities that contributed to each daily newscast. At the end of each year, news departments would cull the highlights for a special broadcast retrospective of the year that was.

From 1965 through 1970, WKNR News went a step beyond putting the program on the air. At the station’s expense hundreds of albums were pressed each year with a commercial-free 45 minute summary of the people, places, events and attitudes that contributed to our history as seen from the newsroom at 15001 Michigan Avenue in Dearborn.

Anchored by WKNR News Director Philip Nye, these LPs are now collectors items and have been utilized by current day broadcasters and historians?to look back at what Detroit was like in the 60s.

WKNR Newsman John Maher (Meagher) collected most of them and sent us rips of the 1965 through 1968 LPs which can be heard here.

Of the instrumentals that populated the WKNR Music Guide, Sounds Orchestral was unique. They were the only British instrumental group to top the Keener charts. Unlike EMI’s Sounds Incorporated, they never toured with the Beatles and worked primarily from the studio. Their line up in 1965 included a 40 year old keyboard guy and a 21 year old bassist. And it took a cover of American Vince Guaraldi’s “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” to get them traction in the crowded field that was competing for ears in the third year of Keener’s Detroit radio dominance. We remember Guaraldi as the music director for the Peanuts television specials. “Cast” made it to number three in Britain and went top ten on the national Billboard Chart. Although they released several additional albums and were recording into the 70s, they were a one hit wonder on WKNR with a seven week chart run peaking at number one for three weeks, ending on tax day in 1965.

Near the end of the Keener eara, the Partridge Family program was hot on Television and David Cassidy’s “I Think I Love You” and “It’s One of Those Nights” were top ten hits on the WKNR Music Guide. In this 1990 segment from Kelly and Company, a 1972 Keener Date with David promotion comes back to haunt him. We meet the winner and David does the right thing. Keener Fans, look closely and you’ll see a picture of Pat St. John in the clip. Pat remembers, “I emceed the show, then I went to the Edgewater Park office to get my fee.?I almost walked out with a lot more than I bargained for, as the guy thought I was Cassidy! The photo would’ve been taken at the Hotel in Downtown Detroit…I’m thinking The Leland, but I could be wrong.”

Long time WKNR engieering ace Jerry Martin was one of two Michigan broadcasters to be honored with The Michigan Association of Broadcasters Carl Lee Broadcast Engineering Excellence Award. Jerry began his career as a radio engineer in 1946, assisting in the construction of Keener’s predecessor, WKMH and holds the distinction of being the second employee hired by Fred Knorr at the station. His many accomplishments through the years include supervising the installation and construction of the present day transmitting facilities of WNIC-FM. Since retiring in 1985, Jerry has worked as a consultant and co-authored the operating information for what is now known as the Emergency Action System (EAS). He is a life member of the Society of Broadcast Engineers and Certified Senior Broadcast Engineer. And.. He built that incredible reverb unit that gave WKNR its distinctive sound.

For someone who grew up listening to J.P. McCarthy on WJR, tuning into Wally Phillips‘ shtick on Chicago’s WGN probably felt like entering an alternate universe. Whereas J.P. Was always urbane and on the level, it was anybody’s guess where Wally might take the listener. Whether it was breaking news or pranking Pavarotti, anything could happen when Walter Richard Aloysius Phillips was on the air. The Chicago radio legend was number one, almost from the moment he came to town and regularly pulled in a record share of the potential listening audience for the next two decades. He’s credited by many as a pioneer who helped define talk radio. Listening to a montage of his air work may seem tame by today’s standards, but his ability to tiptoe toward the edge of the envelope without going past it made his show a must-do for stars like Lucille Ball, Sophia Loren and hundreds of others. Phillips passed away on March 20. He was 82.

Let’s face it. It’s nearly impossible to create great radio in the age of homogenization. But if anybody can come close, its Detroits best consultant, Gary Berkowitz. Take a listen to Oldies 92.5 to see how he works his magic on the Florida Gulf Coast.

Murray the K often got the moniker, but it was a former accountant turned road manager that truely became?”the 5th Beatle”. Niel Aspinall, who died on March 23rd, pre-dated Ringo in his relationship with the band became one of the Beatles’ most powerful behind the scenes forces. He is credited with collating?the celebrity pictures for the cover of the Sgt. Pepper album and even took a turn behind the microphone, helping sing the?chorus of “Yellow Submarine”. His biggest achievement: Pulling together the often fractious surviving Beatles for the production of the multi-media “Beatles Anthology.” He was 66.

A 1962 recording, purported to be the first of the fab four with Ringo at the drums, has the Beatles at odds with a Miami record company.

In March of 1971, we were still in Vietnam.?Radio Hanoi sought to tweak US public opinion by having Hanoi Hannah play The Star Spangled Banner as performed by Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. Their hope of angering Amrerica backfired and Jimi’s version became a hit on?underground radio stations across the country including WKNR-FM. Down I-94 in Ann Arbor, WPAG-FM had just launched a nighttime progressive rock format to try and attract listeners to the stations struggling 3,000 watt monaural signal. The format itself was a bit of a stretch for conservative owner Ted Baughn and Program Director Charlie Bross thought he was definitely pushing the edge of the envelope when authorized a new sign-off, featuring the Hendrix version of the National Anthem.

Jack Benny stopped counting his birthdays at age 39 and seemed to remain locked in time at that magic number. When the Monkees‘ Mickey Dolenz turned 63 on March 8, it was another reminder that, while the music of the Keener era stays the same, time marches on. Mickey was the only one of the four with previous television experience, starring in the Circus Boy series from 1956-58 under the name Mickey Braddock. He auditioned for the part of the drummer and had to learn how to play the instrument before the Monkees debuted in September, 1966. That’s his voice singing lead on many of the group’s hits, starting with the “Last Train to Clarksville”. Penned by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, the tune is purportedly an anti-war song about a draftee who is headed for his army base and fears he may die in Vietnam.?Four decades later, it still resonates with a new generation of soldiers. In later years, Mickey found success behind the camera as a director for the BBC, Disney and ABC.

6 icons of the airwaves are on display at the Detroit Historical Museum, including WKNR alum Dick Purtan. DP is honored, along with Bob Allison, Sonny Eliot, Ernie Harwell, JP McCarthy and Martha Jean “The Queen” Steinberg in a display of sight and sound entitled “Detroits Classic Radio Voices”. Here’s more from Susan Whitall at DetNews.com

He was a one hit wonder as a singer in 1973, but Norm “Hurricane” Smith had a subtle but powerful influence on the Keener sound as the guy who turned the dials for 180 Beatle recordings. As an engineer at EMI, he worked closely with George Martin to create the unique sound that launched Liverpool Lads on the international stage. After completing Rubber Soul in 1965, Smith was promoted to producer and crafted three Pink Floyd albums, “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn”, “A Saucerful of Secrets”, and “Ummagumma”. 8 years later, he sang a demo of a self-penned song called “Oh Babe, What Would You Say“ hoping to convince another artist to record it. As the story goes, fellow producer Mickie Most convinced Smith to release the track himself. 1973 was a year when unique voices like Dr. John, David Bowie and Al Green were first resonating with the public and Smith’s scratchy tenor sold well enough to make it to number 58 on Billboards year end hot 100. His yet-to-be released autobiography is titled “John Lennon Called Me Normal”?and a 2004 retrospective CD featured liner notes from Paul McCartney and members of Pink Floyd. Smith passed away on March 3rd at the age of 85.